The Movie and TV Thread

"End Game" is a short 40 minute Netflix documentary from 2018 that I stumbled upon while scrolling.  It follows several people with terminal diagnosis and the decisions they are making along the way.  It also focuses on a doctor that works for a hospice house.  

The film is very good at providing a non-judgmental look at giving patients and family autonomy in how they should proceed, whether it be more chemo, stopping dialysis and becoming acquainted with the idea of death being part of life.

As a nurse, I've always had the utmost respect for those in the profession of caring for the terminally ill.  All the patients featured in the film ultimately died before publication of the documentary.

I really liked it.  It received an Academy Award nomination for "Best Documentary" and received critical praise. 

The movie "Earth Mama" came to my attention when it was nominated for a couple of "Independent Spirit Awards" (the prizes given to indie and low budget movies).  It was nominated for Best Debut and Best Breakout Performance.  It also won a British Academy Award "for Outstanding Debut by a British writer, director or producer".  It's 100% an American story but the writer and director apparently is British-American.  

It tells the story of a 24 year old African American woman that's very pregnant and is trying to navigate the system to get her children back that were put in foster care because of her drug addiction, while dealing with the agonizing decision on whether to give the unborn child up for adoption and struggling with poverty without a man or family in sight.  

The lead actress does a great job in capturing the struggles and emotions the character goes through and I was very empathetic to her viewpoint.  

The Zone of Interest is a British and Polish film in the German language about the commander of Auschwitz concentration camp and his home life.   

The film received widespread acclaim including the Academy Award for best International Film, and well as being nominated for best picture, along with a slew of other accolades and award nominations.  I would definitely put it in my top ten of 2023, maybe top 5.

To me it was deeply complex and required a lot out of me and I'm not good at putting that into words, so I'll include the Guardians review.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/feb/04/the-zone-of-interest-jonathan-glazer-brutal-auschwitz-drama-sandra-huller-christian-friedel-martin-amis

On a side note, apparently there is a stink about what Producer Jonathan Glazer said when accepting the Oscar for The Zone of Interest

Quote

Accepting the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for his harrowing Holocaust film The Zone of Interest, director Jonathan Glazer took a stance against the state of Israel's ongoing military bombardment of Gaza as part of the Israel-Hamas war. Glazer, who is Jewish, made a simple and straightforward through line from his film, which is about the literal banality of evil, to the present day.

"All our choices we made to reflect and confront us in the present,” Glazer said. "Not to say 'look what they did then' — rather, 'look what we do now.’ Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present.”

https://www.vox.com/culture/2024/3/11/24097323/jonathan-glazer-oscar-acceptance-speech-gaza-controversy

"Poor Things" is a movie I wanted to see when it was out in theaters but never did so I waited for it to come on streaming.  It's for rent on Amazon and I believe it's on Hulu subscription as well. 

It received widespread acclaim and a whopping 11 Academy Award nominations.  It won in the technical categories of production design, make up, and costumes.  It always won lead actress Emma Stone a Best Actress Oscar.

It's a very oddball movie, but captivating and Stone is well deserving of her Oscar.  It follows a woman brought back from the dead by removing her dead brain and transplanting her unborn baby's brain into her head.  Has lush scenery in both black and white.  It does make some social commentary about the world, hunger for knowledge, abuse and sexual freedom.

Well done.

toomuchbaloney said:

This was on my list but the premise gives me pause.  

We watched Dune 2 today.  What a big story and it's well done. 

Dune 2 is on my list.  It's getting rave reviews. 

"Jawan" (meaning "soldier") is a big budget movie from the Hindi Film Industry aka "Bollywood".  It was a huge hit becoming the 2nd highest grossing Hindi language film and the 5th highest grossing Indian film.  

It stars Shah Rukh Khan who is one of the biggest stars in the India and the world.   It's been estimated he has about 3.5 billion fans around the world and was on Time Magazines 100 Most Influential list for 2023.  India makes more movies than any country in the world and Indians on average go to the movies more than any other population after China, so to be a star there is a big deal.

I became a fan of Bollywood a while back, especially after I visited in 2008 when for several years I consumed a lot of Hindi Language movies.  My recent trip earlier this year rekindled that interest.  

Jawan has everything a Bollywood movie could want:  action (including slow motion action scenes), unlikely and impossible scenarios and outcomes (like a man falling out from a flying plane and living),  lots of music and dancing, overly dramatic drama, twists and turns.  It's a good movie if you like Bollywood.  American audiences tend not to like all the music and melodrama.   It's a relatively violent movie.  It has some social commentary on the plight of farmers, corruption in politics and business.   

American Fiction is a critically acclaimed satire about African American representation in media.   It features a writer that can't get his book published, but instead creates a book that as joke to send to publishers that takes off.  There are also side stories about a dysfunctional family.  Eighty-year old star from the 60's and 70's Leslie Uggams stars as the writers mother.  It received Academy Award nominations for Best Movie, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Score and won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.  

I'd definitely put in my Top Ten of 2023.  Excellent.

https://www.vulture.com/article/american-fiction-review-a-satire-thatll-keep-us-talking.html

Profanity alert

Beau is Afraid was a movie I put on my watchlist in January after seeing it on NPR's lists of the best movies of 2023.  It stars Joaquin Phoenix as a mentally ill man with mommy issues.  There's a lot to unpack in the nearly 3-hour movie and it became hard to figure out what was real and what was some psychotic breakdown. 

Phoenix is brilliant in his role and is indeed on of the finest actors out there.  But also kudos to legendary broadway actress Patti LuPone in her role as the mother in her later years.  She's does a fantastic job.

I probably wouldn't put it in my top 10 but definitely one of the better movies from last year.

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/beau-is-afraid-movie-review-2023